May 21st, 2008 · No Comments

By John DeFore

It’s been a busy month of good news for solar power.

First came news from Rowan University that a group of students had teamed with an inventor to hone what they argue is “the first truly new solar thermal system in more than three decades.” The team is focused on collecting heat (for water, cleaning, and atmosphere control) instead of producing electricity, using lightweight, readily available materials to absorb heat over a three-dimensional surface instead of a 2-D one.

Then came word of a new world record in solar cell efficiency, with scientists in Germany and the Netherlands boasting a relative gain of 6% (climbing from 21.9% to 23.2% efficiency) by incorporating an ultra-thin layer of aluminum oxide with the usual silicon crystal panel.

Now IBM has announced its own breakthrough, which looks like an innovation any eight-year-old might have designed: They’ve taken solar cells and essentially attached large magnifying lenses to them, focusing intense solar energy on a small cell.

It isn’t as simple as it sounds, of course. Such ideas have been around for decades, but are plagued by technical challenges. Researchers had to figure out how to keep the cell from being destroyed by the intense heat such magnification generates. (Ever used the sun to start a campfire?) Using water and a specially designed liquid-metal surface they were able, according to this article, ” to reduce the heat of concentrator solar cells from nearly 3,000 degrees to about 185 degrees.”

The resulting device reportedly generates about five times as much electricity as cells used in today’s solar farms. IBM has no plans to manufacture the chips itself, but instead plans to license the technology to other companies.

Copyright © 2008 | Distributed by Noofangle Media